


As We Are

by SunShark



Category: Final Fantasy VII
Genre: Gen, Grief, Long Hair, cloning issues, impossible hair
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-17
Updated: 2016-04-17
Packaged: 2018-06-02 17:38:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,323
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6576058
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SunShark/pseuds/SunShark
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Of all the traits Cloud inherited from Sephiroth, he didn't expect impossible to cut hair to be one of them. (Playing off of all the stories with Sephiroth's super hair, and then the story kind of ran off on its own).</p>
            </blockquote>





	As We Are

Aerith found out while they were getting ready to sneak into Don Corneo's Mansion. As short as Cloud's hair was, they couldn't quite hide all of it in the wig. Little bits poked out here and there, and since the wig was brown and Cloud was blond, it was a bit obvious.

They tried clips. And head bands. Aerith even managed to barter for some hair gel. Even then, Cloud's bangs still managed to make themselves known.

Eventually he got fed up and asked her to cut it off.

"But Clo-oud!" Aerith whined, "that would ruin your spikiness! And the spikes are part of your charm!"

Cloud scowled. "They're getting in the way. And we need to hurry up and rescue Tifa. Just cut it and it'll grow back eventually."

"No!" Aerith pouted. "Let me give it another shot, I'm sure we can manage..."

As Aerith turned to try yet another hair implement, Cloud quickly grabbed the dress shop's scissors and hacked at his bangs.

His hair tangled around the scissor hinge. Cloud went at it a second time more carefully. This time the scissors broke in his hands.

"Cloud," Cloud quickly put the 2 pieces of scissor back where he found them. Aerith's eyes zoomed in on them immediately. "Cloud!" she scolded, "You can't just break their scissors, they made you a dress!"

"It was an accident!" Cloud protested. "And they were flimsy anyway!"

"Cloud!" Cloud stopped protesting, though he noticed she didn't say anything about the 'flimsy' comment. Then again, this was the slums.

Aerith kept up her disappointed face for a moment longer, then dropped it with a sigh. "I guess we can replace them when we get back." She eyed Cloud's hair thoughtfully. "So we can't pin it, and apparently we can't cut it...I know, let's braid it!"

"What?"

"We can detach the hair from the wig and braid it directly into your hair. Then it'll look you dyed the bottom half. It was a fashion in Sector 5 about three years ago, it'll be fine!"

Cloud shrugged. "If you say so."

It ended up being more than fine; the braids stayed in during Corneo's mansion, through the collapse of Sector 7, all the way up until they were captured by Shinra and thrown into cells.

"Hey," said Barret, while they were all recovering, "been meaning to ask." There was a silence, as if he were chewing on the words first, before he spat out, "Why the hell are you wearing braids!"

Aerith and Tifa immediately erupted into giggles, while Cloud deadpanned, "Because I felt like it." Then, although he knew Barrett couldn't see it, he smirked. "Why, jealous?"

Barret sputtered from the adjacent cell. "No! It's just - just - Marlene!" They all sobered a bit. "And I won't be able to do them for her. Not with these hands."

Cloud turned to Tifa, who pointed at her own hair. "I never really learned," she said. "And Jessie -," She looked pained, but continued, "Jessie liked ponytails. Every day. And I never asked."

Silence descended on them all. Cloud only had a bit more than half of all his braids, the rest lost throughout Shinra Headquarters. A firm tug was enough to pull out the rest.

"I..." Aerith began. "Barret, if...no, when we get out of here, and meet up with Marlene and my mom, I would be happy to teach her how to braid."

"Yeah?" Barret said. "…she’d like that."

“Then it’s a deal!” Aerith said happily.

“Quiet, you!” The infantrymen outside banged on the doors, and everyone hushed. Then immediately started planning their escape. Quietly. 

*** 

The next person to notice was actually Yuffie, when Cloud countered his way between her and a flying sickle attack that shredded most of his clothes.

“Ew! Ew ew ew gross! Cover it up, cover it up!” Yuffie screamed. Cloud tried to smack her over the head, but missed as she danced away. “My eyes! How dare you besmirch the White Rose of Wutai!”

“A little gratitude would be nice,” Cloud grumbled, already digging in his pack for another shirt while RedXIII looked on in amusement. Honestly, nothing was actually showing, the armor covered those bits. It’s just that the rest of the cloth was way too flimsy, as expected of Shinra merchandise. He looked forward to finding some full-body armor just to save gil on clothing.

Cloud finished changing and looked up in time to see Yuffie peeking at him through her fingers.

“Yuffie,” He growled.

“Nope! Didn’t see nothing!” She sang, looking at the sky. Cloud took a threatening step toward her, so she ran and hid behind RedXIII. “Eek! Red, hide me!”

Then she noticed something. “Hey Red, how come you’re not shredded too?” she asked.

“Maybe because he didn’t get hit?” Cloud offered, stalking around RedXIII.

“No, he did! I saw him!” Yuffie turned to RedXIII. “Hey Red, back me up here!”

The fire cat shrugged. “My species is more resilient to physical attack than humans. That extends to my fur as well.”

“See? –Hey!” Yuffie shouted as Cloud hoisted her into the air by her shirt. “Put me down! Mongrel! Brute! Weakling – hey wait, you have hair!”

Cloud looked at her, nonplussed. “…and that surprises you, why?”

“Because!” Yuffie waved her hands around. “That attack tore your clothes to bits, so it should have hit your hair too! So you must have, like, super hair!” A glint showed in her eye. “Hey, next time you cut your hair can I have it? I bet I could make super armor from it!”

Cloud shook his head and without warning, dropped her. The ninja squeaked as she fell, but landed on her feet. “Too bad, my hair can’t be cut.”

Yuffie pouted. “Says who?”

“Says…” Cloud thought about it. The last time he tried, well, those were crap scissors anyway. But he didn’t want to deal with Yuffie at the moment. “Says me.”

“Is that a challenge?”

“No. It’s not.

“Alright, I accept your challenge!”

Yuffie did back off eventually, after breaking six kunai and one of her older giant shuriken on his hair. She did, however, suggest that he learn how to fight backwards, so that they could use his hair as a shield. Cloud countered by saying that it wouldn’t stop him from getting a concussion, so would she please stop clinging to his neck like a monkey.

RedXIII only shook his head. Was it really so strange for humans to keep what little fur they had?

*** 

He’s not sure when, but the next one to find out is Tifa.

After the collapse of Mideel and his return to awareness, Cloud notices something tickling his neck. It turns out to be his hair – his chin length hair, which had grown during his mako bath and subsequent coma.  
When he looks into a mirror, he sees that most of his spikes were tamed due to their length.

“Cut it,” He tells Tifa when she comes back with food. “My hair – are there scissors? Knives? Can you cut it?”

Tifa smiled sadly and shook her head. “I tried, Cloud. When we found you again, it was already so long, so we tried trimming it. It broke just about everything we tried on it.”

“Is that so.” He fingers a strand of hair and twists it, over and over. He yanks at it, but besides a small pinprick of pain in his scalp it stays put. 

Cloud eyed the strand contemplatively. Then he eyed the candle illuminating the room. “What about fire?” He suggested, and before Tifa could react he dives for the candle and shoves it against his hair. He barely feels the heat before the candle goes out.

Tifa screams. “Cloud!”

It was so different from what he remembered. His hair was still blond, yes, but it used to be somewhat rough and brittle, and had the same tendency to fall out during stress as his mother’s hair. Now, it was smooth and thick without any effort on his part, and was also apparently impossible to destroy.

If he dwelt on it for too long, he might grow to hate it.

“Cloud, snap out of it! Cloud!”

The candle is yanked from his hand, and he focuses back on the present. Tifa stood before him, chest heaving, eyes wide with worry.

“…Sorry. I just…realized how much I...”

Tifa moved as if to wrap her arms around him, then changed her mind and grabbed his hands instead. They were warm, much warmer than they were during his coma, and she let out a shuddering breath.

“I know, Cloud,” she whispered, “I know.”

They stay together that way until the sun set and the glow of mako spring took over the night sky. Tomorrow they would have to deal with Sephiroth and the meteor. But tonight Tifa treasured Cloud’s return, and Cloud submitted to the grief he had missed in the absence of his memory.

Before they head out to the Highwind, Tifa gives him a hair tie. “It’s to keep it out of your face while you’re fighting,” she says. “It’s pretty easy to use; you just keep looping it around until it feels tight enough not to fall off.”

“I think I can figure out how to use a hair tie, Tifa,” said Cloud, “But, thanks.”

Tifa smiled. “Anytime.”

*** 

The one to get it is Vincent.

Vincent, who’s hair would be all over the place if not for his bandanna. Vincent, who looks so different from the company picture they managed to dig up from the Shinra Mansion.

Vincent, who’s one of the few friends he has left that haven’t passed on to old age. The both of them don’t seemed to have aged a day.

“Your hair’s getting ridiculous,” Cloud says as a greeting.

“So is yours,” he gets as a reply.

It’s true; without any way to cut it, his hair just keeps getting longer and longer each decade. The hair tie from Tifa broke ages ago, not that it would have help much at this point. Currently it reaches down to his butt. Cloud never gets any trouble with tangles. He’s also lost all of his bang spikes.

Vincent’s the same. His hair’s just as smooth, just as thick, just as impossible to destroy as Cloud’s. He wonders offhand that if Sephiroth were still alive, if his hair was as impossible.

Vincent shift, and Cloud watches him reach for something in his pocket. Two somethings, actually.

“You know those won’t really help that much,” Cloud says, gesturing to the ribbons in Vincent’s hand. Normal ribbons, not the status deflecting ones from Aerith. One was blue, the other was red.

Vincent says nothing and continues to hold out the ribbons, so Cloud relents and grabs one. Then –

“I can show you how to braid it.”

Cloud stares at him incredulously. “What?”

Vincent says nothing.

“So we’re just going to sit here and braid each other’s hair?”

Still nothing.

“What brought this on? Did you – oh, you visited Lucrecia recently huh.”

Still nothing.

“Fine, fine.” Cloud sits down. “Now what?”

Vincent moves to stand behind him. He divides the hair into three parts, his claw hand brushing but never puncturing the skin below. They were much too skilled to hurt each other by accident.

“You divide it into three equal parts. Then, you weave the parts over and under…”

Vincent talks as he works, and Cloud finally manages to see what he’s talking about once he gets further down and Cloud can turn his head. Vincent finishes the braid with a small tidy blue bow. Now his hair only went as far as halfway down his back.

“Neat,” Cloud commented. “Does this mean I get to do yours?”

“Go ahead.” Vincent sat down, and Cloud got behind him.

“You’re going to have to take off that bandana, you know,” said Cloud. Vincent didn’t move for a few moments, hesitating, but finally agreed. Without it, his hair reached his back. 

Cloud worked using what he remembered, messed up, and started over again. The longer he went at it the more nimble his fingers worked.

“You know…” he started. “This isn’t my first time with braids. The first time Aerith did them for me, so that I could cross-dress and rescue Tifa, though this was before we found you.”

He doesn’t say anything else and lets Vincent digest this tidbit. He doesn’t even know why he offered it. But it’s their friends, and it’s a funny story, though he can’t recall all specifics.

“I…” Vincent begins, then stopped. Cloud keeps braiding, over and under, over and under. They have all the time in the world. There’s no need to rush him.

And sure enough, he continues.

“I did this for Lucrecia. When she went through her braid phase, she taught me as well.” Vincent finishes.

Ah, so that’s where this started.

Cloud finally reaches the end of Vincent’s hair, and ties it with a giant flowery red bow he learned from Marlene. It doesn’t suit Vincent in the slightest. He thanks him for it anyway.

“So.” Cloud stretches, pleased to no longer feel his hair wisping against his face. It’s been a while since he’s felt that. “Want to visit Rocket town?” Which was now reaching for the moon apparently. Cid’s protégés held his spirit, at least.

Vincent reaches his hand back to feel the evenness of the braid. “Maybe,” he offers. Cloud notices that he doesn’t put the bandana back on.

They’re on a cliff that overlooks the ruins of Midgar, which was finally being reclaimed by nature. Smoke stacks and shiny solar panels marked out Edge in the distance, one of Reeve’s last contributions.

“Alright,” says Cloud, shifting into a more comfortable position. The heaviness of his braid is strange, but ultimately negligible. He’s had far too long to get used to it.

They sit together, watching the sun set over the changing world. It’s peaceful.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading! Yeah, it got more depressing than what I started out with, but I like how it went. Please leave a review on your way out!


End file.
